Investigation of net metering as a tool for increasing electricity access in Malawi

Abstract

Globally increasing energy demand has had a significant impact on development. In Malawi, the net metering policy, which is part of the framework for independent power producers, has the potential to improve energy access. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the use of net metering policy as a means of improving reliability and access to electricity. The HOMER software was used to size solar PV systems while accounting for net metering at the household level. Reliability indicators such as forced outage rate (FOR), loss of load probability (LOLP), loss of load expectation (LOLE), and expected load loss (ELL) were calculated to be 6.746 ? 10-12, 2.462 ? 10-9 days/year and 0.000504756 Watts, respectively. The findings indicate that the designed system is more reliable and economically viable than a system without net metre electricity. Thus, the Malawi Government should consider net metering to encourage more homes to sell excess energy to the grid.